Deck 16: Managing Human Resources Globally

Question 1

Is Translating a Global Business
One field in which small businesses have recently enjoyed rapid growth is in the business of providing translations. As barriers to international business continue to fall, more and more people are encountering language differences in the people they work with, sell to, and buy from. At the same time, advances in technology are providing avenues to deliver translations over the phone and over the Internet.
TransPerfect is one of the success stories. The company, based in New York, started out when founder Steve Iverson, a French teacher, began translating documents for clients. Satisfied customers returned, looking for translations of patents and annual reports-even for court reporting in foreign languages. The company now provides translations in over 170 languages. It has offices in more than 85 cities spread over six continents.
CETRA Language Solutions is headquartered in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. It started with a lawsuit: while founder Jiri Stejskal was working on his doctorate degree in Slavic languages and literature, a Philadelphia law firm asked him to translate thousands of pages of documents related to a case. Stejskal brought in all the Czech translators he could find, and his company was
born. Now CETRAs employees and hundreds of consultants serve the federal government plus companies involved in law, marketing research, and life sciences. The company's freelance translators and interpreters are located throughout the world.
LinguaLinx, based in Troy, New York, handles more than words. It converts documents, websites, and multimedia into almost 150 languages. The company not only has to find qualified translators, it needs experts in technology to make state-of-the-art presentations. To recruit employees, LinguaLinx emphasizes interesting work experiences, rather than fancy perks. The company's careers website describes opportunities to work with a diverse, multicultural group, including clients at leading corporations and nonprofit organizations.
Would those challenges be easier to meet by recruiting within the United States or by looking for talent overseas Explain.

Answer 1

Looking at the U.S. Census data (shown below) it will be relatively easier to recruit Spanish language to English language translators in the U.S. Perhaps French language to English language translators can also be found in the U.S. since there are specific geographic areas they may be available.
It may be a challenge to select and recruit locally in the U.S., Polish language to English language translators.

Question 2

Global Mindset Gives Renault-Nissan a Strategic Edge
Carlos Ghosn's outlook is extraordinarily global. The chief executive of the Renault-Nissan Alliance was born in Brazil to Lebanese parents, spent most of his childhood in Lebanon, and earned engineering degrees in France. He went to work for Michelin, rose to management positions, led a turnaround of Michelin's South American division, and then moved again to head Mi-chelin's North American division. His career caught the attention of French automaker Renault, which was looking for someone to lead a turnaround of Nissan after Renault had acquired a large stake in the struggling Japanese business. Ghosn returned Nissan to profitability and later became head of both automakers as well as the alliance they founded. He works in both Paris and Tokyo, also traveling to facilities in other countries.
Ghosn's global outlook has strengthened the alliance between Renault and Nissan, which has lasted longer than other such attempts in the industry. The companies share designs and hold ownership stakes in each other. Ghosn sees not only cultural barriers to overcome but also opportunities for applying each culture's strengths. For example, in Japan, Ghosn discovered a concept called monozukuri , which literally means making things but also implies a spirit of working together creatively over time to make improvements that result in excellent
products. Ghosn found that monozukuri enables higher quality and lower costs by uniting employees across job categories in a common cause. So Renault-Nissan has taught the concept in its operations outside of Japan as a way to stimulate improvement.
Applying such lessons requires certain qualities. Two that Ghosn has identified include a thirst for learning and a humble attitude. These qualities promote learning from others. Another is what Ghosn calls "common" sense, by which he means a perspective that people share common ground, which helps them understand and listen to one another. Yet another important quality is mutual respect. According to Ghosn, the best way to acquire such skills and attitudes is to make a point of working with people from other cultures-say, by seeking out foreign assignments or collaborating with others from a position in one's home country. Nissan, for example, promotes this kind of communication by setting up leadership development programs in which employees from different countries participate in virtual classrooms online.
The global mindset remains important for Renault-Nissan's strategy of becoming one of the world's top three automakers. The alliance partners are deepening their relationship, with the goal of developing 70% of their vehicles jointly. The alliance also has set up a technology-sharing partnership with Daimler, based in Germany. Among other projects, they will produce luxury cars in Mexico. Daimler's Mercedes and Nissan's Infiniti will share engines and other parts with a common design.
Suppose you work in the HR function at Nissan when it is identifying employees to work on the joint manufacturing project in Mexico. Briefly advise the company on how to prepare these employees to succeed as expatriates.

Answer 2

NO ANSWER

Question 3

Standard Chartered Bank Invests in Its Expatriates
With branches in 70 countries and nine-tenths of its income coming from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, London-based Standard Chartered Bank often uses expatriates. When it needs someone to start up a new line of business or fill an opening on a project, the bank evaluates the existing skills throughout the organization. It has a workforce of 86,000 people of more than 130 nationalities, so Standard Chartered often can fill a need through internal recruitment.
At this point, the bank's staff responsible for talent acquisition, international mobility (relocation), and training and development work together closely. If the best candidate will have to relocate to another country, the international mobility team goes to work on estimating costs, and the training and development team begins to identify needs.
For any international assignment, Standard Chartered plans for employee development and leadership skills, regardless of the employee's level in the organization. Throughout the assignment, the expatriate employee stays connected with the bank's international talent deployment and talent acquisition group at a single location. Standard Chartered evaluates and coaches expatriates not only in whether they are adjusting to the new culture but also in how well expatriate managers are developing local talent to fill future roles. HR staffers participate in discussions about how each assignment will contribute to possible career paths for the expatriate. These discussions are particularly important in the last months of an assignment, so that returning employees see they are valued and are more likely to stay with Standard Chartered.
In India, the focus on training and development has been valuable as a way for Standard Chartered to compete in a tough labor market. Growth in the Indian economy has made retention of talented employees more difficult. The chance to take on interesting and important international assignments has been attractive to India's educated workers. Ensuring that these employees are well supported and developed means they can succeed at meeting the challenges of those assignments and thus build a career with the bank.
How might careful preparation for departure help Standard Chartered develop and retain talented employees

Answer 3

Cultural norms can greatly influence how business is conducted in different regions and areas. For global companies, it is more important to understand the different cultures in their areas of operations for them to sustain business in a longer run.
Bank S can retain and develop its employees in an effective manner because each employee irrespective of their position in the company is trained for international projects that might require them to handle. International talent acquisition team along with the relocation and development team ensure that employees are working in a manner that boosts the skill sets of the employees that will enable them to take on international projects and allow them to train local talent as well which will help attain the company goals.

Question 4

What are some HRM challenges that arise when a U.S. company expands from domestic markets by exporting When it changes from simply exporting to operating as an international company When an international company becomes a global company

Question 5

Priciest Cities Are Spread over Three Continents
Expatriates spend more for housing, transportation, food, clothing, and other living expenses in Luanda, Angola, than in any other major city, according to a survey by Mercer Human Resources Consulting. The capital cities of Angola and Chad are in the two top spots because they are rich sources of oil, so they are drawing in a stream of oil companies and their employees, increasing the demand for safe local housing and imported goods.
Rankings are influenced by the relative value of national currencies, as well as by political strife and natural disasters. The least expensive city among those studied was Karachi, Pakistan, where security concerns have reduced the demand for housing.
The only U.S. city in Mercer's top 50 is New York, which ranks 16th. Other U.S. cities are in the top 100: Los Angeles (62), San Francisco (74), Honolulu (97), and Miami (98).

Why might an organization choose to locate a facility in one of the most expensive cities, in spite of the higher costs

Question 6

CAN OFFSHORING BE DONE MORE ETHICALLY
As we saw in Chapter 5, human resource planning involves several options to meet an organization's needs for talent. One option is to outsource activities that can be performed more effectively and efficiently by a contractor. In today's global marketplace, outsourcing decisions frequently involve offshoring activities to companies in lower-wage locations. However, the reasons why labor costs are lower in another country include lower standards for working conditions-even conditions that would be considered unethical in the parent country.
This kind of decision can open up a company to criticism and may conflict with its own values related to social responsibility-a set of problems that Nike has been wrestling with for two decades. When the company was founded, in 1964, the idea of importing shoes from low-wage countries was an innovation. By the 1990s, reports of working conditions put Nike on the defensive, and it argued that it didn't own the factories, so it wasn't responsible. However, as negative publicity mounted, Nike began to share information openly and engage directly with factories to improve working conditions. In 2004, the company appointed Hannah Jones, a former reporter, to serve as its head of sustainable business.
Jones was especially concerned about working conditions in Bangladesh, but managers in the production division were drawn to the opportunity to buy shoes made at the lowest available cost. They believed that if they negotiated safety standards as part of their contracts, the suppliers would comply, but Jones had her doubts. To gather information and reach an agreement, Jones and the production managers visited one of the company's suppliers in Bangladesh. They saw safety hazards throughout the building and decided to stop buying from that supplier, even though the decision contributed to shrinking profit margins.
At Nike, decisions such as these have mostly eliminated purchases from suppliers that use certain hazardous materials and where workers have died. Still, organizations that investigate working conditions have found abuse of workers and violations of overtime and minimum-wage requirements at companies that sell to Nike. The company continues to set and monitor social responsibility goals such as buying from companies that have eliminated excessive overtime and that protect worker health and safety.
What ethical standards for human resource management do you think a company should require from all its operations worldwide In what areas of HRM, if any, should ethical standards be relaxed to match the prevailing norms of a particular country

Question 7

Cross-Cultural Management Mishaps
When Andrew Pickup left his home country of the United Kingdom to take a management position in Singapore, he did not expect to have to adjust his style of gathering performance information. As Pickup analyzed the situation, he was traveling to a former British colony, where people spoke English and had grown used to British ways of doing business. He assumed his direct style of getting and sharing information would work well. Instead, when he invited feedback, employees were startled and were quiet. In Singapore, people consider it polite to be subtle. Pickup learned to take his time and develop relationships, and eventually he was better able to get the information he needed.
Debbie Nicol, an Australian, has a job that involves training others. When she arrived in Dubai for a six-year assignment, she experienced an embarrassment in the middle of a training session. One of the attendees suddenly stood up and headed for the door, and she felt she had failed to hold his interest in the subject. She asked why he was leaving. He said he was going to pray. After that, Nicol learned to build prayer breaks into training schedules at the appropriate times of the day.
Pickup and Nicol quickly learned from their experiences. Managers and employees can succeed in cross-cultural situations if they are flexible. Like Nicol, they may change their practices to suit an important cultural norm. Or like Pickup, they may persevere in demonstrating their own practices when these are most beneficial. Either way, it is important to behave respectfully and with an effort at genuine understanding. Success also is more likely for a person who is aware of and honest about his or her own cultural norms and values.
Based on the information given, how respectfully and effectively did Andrew Pickup handle his mistake in seeking feedback

Question 8

Coping with Pollution in Beijing
Beijing, China's capital city, has been plagued with serious air pollution. Of particular concern is a pollutant called fine particulate matter (PM), composed of a mix of solid and liquid particles, including sulfate, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, carbon, mineral dust, and water. When people inhale PM that is 2.5 micrometers or smaller (called PM 2.5), it interferes with gas exchange in the lungs and contributes to development of lung cancer and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The standard of the World Health Organization is that PM 2.5 should not average more than 25 micrograms per cubic meter over a 24-hour period. But in a recent winter, PM 2.5 was measured at 755-a level at which people can see, feel, and taste the grit in the air. Along with increasing the risk of disease and premature death, that kind of pollution causes daily problems such as itchy throat and chronic cough.
Pollution that bad raises HRM challenges for organizations that operate in Beijing. A fundamental problem is that talented people in other countries do not want to relocate to the area. At BMW, several candidates for midlevel management positions withdrew their applications because of concerns about their families living in unhealthy conditions. A doctor at Beijing Family Hospital said he had heard from many expatriates that they intend not to renew their employment contracts to work in Beijing.
Some actions employers have taken involve making workers safer and more comfortable. Employers have purchased air purifiers and face masks for employees and have brought in experts to teach employees and their families how to stay healthy. They also have increased hardship allowances for employees working in the area.
Employers also can point to community efforts to make living in Beijing healthier. For example, international schools that teach the children of expatriates have taken actions to protect students. Dulwich College Beijing installed a huge dome over an outside play area, so students can leave the building to play basketball and other games when the PM 2.5 index is 250 or more.
The problem in Beijing also has become an opportunity for employers located away from the worst pollution. One Chinese company launched a "Blue Sky Recruitment" campaign in Beijing to lure young information technology engineers to the south of the country, where the air is better. The company's ads, posted in elevators, asked, "Do you dare to pursue a life with blue sky and white clouds "
What should a socially responsible employer do to protect its employees in conditions such as these

Question 9

Online Communities to Support Expatriates' Spouses
A common reason cited for the failure of an international assignment is that the expatriate's spouse was dissatisfied. The role of an accompanying spouse is difficult. Often, this person is not legally allowed to work in the host country, so it is more difficult for him or her to find new friends and meaningful activities.
Employers can help the accompanying spouse make connections. An employer, especially one with a lot of expatriate employees, might set up its own spouses' network. In The Netherlands, Eindhoven University of Technology recruits one-third of its employees from other countries but found that many left after a short period because spouses were unhappy there. It began offering spouses a "Get in Touch" program of weekly meetings to exchange information and visit places of interest. Between meetings, the spouses can keep in contact by joining the group's Facebook community. After the three-month program ended, many of the participants didn't want to stop participating, so the university added a Stay in Touch program.
Another approach is to provide information about non-company-related social networks for expatriate spouses. Spouses may appreciate the chance to build their own circle of friends. One example is the Trailing Spouse Network, a LinkedIn group where people can share ideas, advice, and support. The Trailing Spouse Network also has a page on Facebook.
Increasingly often, the accompanying spouse is a husband. Some men have had an especially hard time making connections, because support services have been geared to women. These spouses might especially welcome information about social networks for men. In Belgium, for instance, a group of men set up a group called STUDS (for Spouses Trailing under Duress Successfully), which offers activities and keeps members connected online with a blog. Even after leaving Belgium, friends who met in STUDS can keep in touch by posting news and questions on the blog's website.
What pros and cons do you see in having an organization set up its own social network for accompanying spouses

Question 10

Is Translating a Global Business
One field in which small businesses have recently enjoyed rapid growth is in the business of providing translations. As barriers to international business continue to fall, more and more people are encountering language differences in the people they work with, sell to, and buy from. At the same time, advances in technology are providing avenues to deliver translations over the phone and over the Internet.
TransPerfect is one of the success stories. The company, based in New York, started out when founder Steve Iverson, a French teacher, began translating documents for clients. Satisfied customers returned, looking for translations of patents and annual reports-even for court reporting in foreign languages. The company now provides translations in over 170 languages. It has offices in more than 85 cities spread over six continents.
CETRA Language Solutions is headquartered in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. It started with a lawsuit: while founder Jiri Stejskal was working on his doctorate degree in Slavic languages and literature, a Philadelphia law firm asked him to translate thousands of pages of documents related to a case. Stejskal brought in all the Czech translators he could find, and his company was
born. Now CETRAs employees and hundreds of consultants serve the federal government plus companies involved in law, marketing research, and life sciences. The company's freelance translators and interpreters are located throughout the world.
LinguaLinx, based in Troy, New York, handles more than words. It converts documents, websites, and multimedia into almost 150 languages. The company not only has to find qualified translators, it needs experts in technology to make state-of-the-art presentations. To recruit employees, LinguaLinx emphasizes interesting work experiences, rather than fancy perks. The company's careers website describes opportunities to work with a diverse, multicultural group, including clients at leading corporations and nonprofit organizations.
Suppose a small translation business asked you to advise the company on how to overcome cultural barriers among a staff drawn from three countries. Suggest a few ways the company could use training and performance management to achieve this goal.

Question 11

Supporting a Multinational Strategy
When organizations are making decisions about where and how to operate, HR professionals should help to ensure that decisions about hiring, training, rewarding, and so on are aligned with their organization's strategy. Here are some ideas for managing global human resources:
• Develop a "global mind-set." Learn about the global business environment, including the legal, economic, and cultural issues affecting the various locations where the organization operates or may decide to operate. Practice empathy and diplomacy, and think of differences as something interesting to explore.
• Build an HR department that reflects the organization's global diversity. Ensure that the people in HR represent the people in the organization.
• Build a network of relationships with co-workers in other locations. Use the resources available, such as the corporate intranet, company meetings, and if possible, travel to other facilities.
• Learn what the HR best practices are in other countries. Instead of assuming that HR practices used in headquarters will work as well in all locations, weigh the pros and cons of different approaches in each context.
• Be sure training and development programs address talent needs globally. Identify and develop high-potential employees in all the locations where the organization operates. Review training materials to find and correct cultural assumptions that may not apply to all trainees or situations.
• Use company databases to create, analyze, and make available information about employees' skills, including international experience and languages spoken, so the best individuals can be tapped as positions open up.
Do you think you already have a global mind-set, as described in the first bullet point Why or why not

Question 12

In recent years, many U.S. companies have invested in Russia and sent U.S. managers there in an attempt to transplant U.S.-style management. According to Holstede, U.S. culture has low power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation and high individuality and masculinity. Russia's culture has high power distance and uncertainty avoidance, low masculinity and long-term orientation, and moderate individuality. In light of what you know about cultural differences, how well do you think U.S. managers can succeed in each of the following U.S.-style HRM practices (Explain your reasons.)
a. Selection decisions based on extensive assessment of individual abilities.
b. Appraisals based on individual performance.
c. Systems for gathering suggestions from workers.
d. Self-managing work teams.

Question 13

Is Translating a Global Business
One field in which small businesses have recently enjoyed rapid growth is in the business of providing translations. As barriers to international business continue to fall, more and more people are encountering language differences in the people they work with, sell to, and buy from. At the same time, advances in technology are providing avenues to deliver translations over the phone and over the Internet.
TransPerfect is one of the success stories. The company, based in New York, started out when founder Steve Iverson, a French teacher, began translating documents for clients. Satisfied customers returned, looking for translations of patents and annual reports-even for court reporting in foreign languages. The company now provides translations in over 170 languages. It has offices in more than 85 cities spread over six continents.
CETRA Language Solutions is headquartered in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. It started with a lawsuit: while founder Jiri Stejskal was working on his doctorate degree in Slavic languages and literature, a Philadelphia law firm asked him to translate thousands of pages of documents related to a case. Stejskal brought in all the Czech translators he could find, and his company was
born. Now CETRAs employees and hundreds of consultants serve the federal government plus companies involved in law, marketing research, and life sciences. The company's freelance translators and interpreters are located throughout the world.
LinguaLinx, based in Troy, New York, handles more than words. It converts documents, websites, and multimedia into almost 150 languages. The company not only has to find qualified translators, it needs experts in technology to make state-of-the-art presentations. To recruit employees, LinguaLinx emphasizes interesting work experiences, rather than fancy perks. The company's careers website describes opportunities to work with a diverse, multicultural group, including clients at leading corporations and nonprofit organizations.
What kinds of challenges would be involved in recruiting and selecting people to translate documents from Spanish, Polish, and French into English

Question 14

Besides cultural differences, what other factors affect human resource management in an organization with international operations

Question 15

Global Mindset Gives Renault-Nissan a Strategic Edge
Carlos Ghosn's outlook is extraordinarily global. The chief executive of the Renault-Nissan Alliance was born in Brazil to Lebanese parents, spent most of his childhood in Lebanon, and earned engineering degrees in France. He went to work for Michelin, rose to management positions, led a turnaround of Michelin's South American division, and then moved again to head Mi-chelin's North American division. His career caught the attention of French automaker Renault, which was looking for someone to lead a turnaround of Nissan after Renault had acquired a large stake in the struggling Japanese business. Ghosn returned Nissan to profitability and later became head of both automakers as well as the alliance they founded. He works in both Paris and Tokyo, also traveling to facilities in other countries.
Ghosn's global outlook has strengthened the alliance between Renault and Nissan, which has lasted longer than other such attempts in the industry. The companies share designs and hold ownership stakes in each other. Ghosn sees not only cultural barriers to overcome but also opportunities for applying each culture's strengths. For example, in Japan, Ghosn discovered a concept called monozukuri , which literally means making things but also implies a spirit of working together creatively over time to make improvements that result in excellent
products. Ghosn found that monozukuri enables higher quality and lower costs by uniting employees across job categories in a common cause. So Renault-Nissan has taught the concept in its operations outside of Japan as a way to stimulate improvement.
Applying such lessons requires certain qualities. Two that Ghosn has identified include a thirst for learning and a humble attitude. These qualities promote learning from others. Another is what Ghosn calls "common" sense, by which he means a perspective that people share common ground, which helps them understand and listen to one another. Yet another important quality is mutual respect. According to Ghosn, the best way to acquire such skills and attitudes is to make a point of working with people from other cultures-say, by seeking out foreign assignments or collaborating with others from a position in one's home country. Nissan, for example, promotes this kind of communication by setting up leadership development programs in which employees from different countries participate in virtual classrooms online.
The global mindset remains important for Renault-Nissan's strategy of becoming one of the world's top three automakers. The alliance partners are deepening their relationship, with the goal of developing 70% of their vehicles jointly. The alliance also has set up a technology-sharing partnership with Daimler, based in Germany. Among other projects, they will produce luxury cars in Mexico. Daimler's Mercedes and Nissan's Infiniti will share engines and other parts with a common design.
Would you categorize the Renault-Nissan alliance as an international, multinational, or global organization Why

Question 16

Suppose you work in the HR department of a company that is expanding into a country where the law and culture make it difficult to lay off employees. How should your knowledge of that difficulty affect human resource planning for the overseas operations

Question 17

Identify the parent country, host country(ies), and third country(ies) in the following example: A global soft-drink company called Cold Cola has headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. It operates production facilities in Athens, Greece, and in Jakarta, Indonesia. The company has assigned a manager from Boston to head the Athens facility and a manager from Hong Kong to manage the Jakarta facility.

Question 18

Why do multinational organizations hire host-country nationals to fill most of their foreign positions, rather than sending expatriates for most jobs

Question 19

CAN OFFSHORING BE DONE MORE ETHICALLY
As we saw in Chapter 5, human resource planning involves several options to meet an organization's needs for talent. One option is to outsource activities that can be performed more effectively and efficiently by a contractor. In today's global marketplace, outsourcing decisions frequently involve offshoring activities to companies in lower-wage locations. However, the reasons why labor costs are lower in another country include lower standards for working conditions-even conditions that would be considered unethical in the parent country.
This kind of decision can open up a company to criticism and may conflict with its own values related to social responsibility-a set of problems that Nike has been wrestling with for two decades. When the company was founded, in 1964, the idea of importing shoes from low-wage countries was an innovation. By the 1990s, reports of working conditions put Nike on the defensive, and it argued that it didn't own the factories, so it wasn't responsible. However, as negative publicity mounted, Nike began to share information openly and engage directly with factories to improve working conditions. In 2004, the company appointed Hannah Jones, a former reporter, to serve as its head of sustainable business.
Jones was especially concerned about working conditions in Bangladesh, but managers in the production division were drawn to the opportunity to buy shoes made at the lowest available cost. They believed that if they negotiated safety standards as part of their contracts, the suppliers would comply, but Jones had her doubts. To gather information and reach an agreement, Jones and the production managers visited one of the company's suppliers in Bangladesh. They saw safety hazards throughout the building and decided to stop buying from that supplier, even though the decision contributed to shrinking profit margins.
At Nike, decisions such as these have mostly eliminated purchases from suppliers that use certain hazardous materials and where workers have died. Still, organizations that investigate working conditions have found abuse of workers and violations of overtime and minimum-wage requirements at companies that sell to Nike. The company continues to set and monitor social responsibility goals such as buying from companies that have eliminated excessive overtime and that protect worker health and safety.
In deciding whether to outsource functions, does an organization such as Nike have an ethical obligation to consider how workers will be treated by the contractor that hires those workers Why or why not

Question 20

Suppose an organization decides to improve collaboration and knowledge sharing by developing an intranet to link its global workforce. It needs to train employees in several different countries to use this system. List the possible cultural issues you can think of that the training program should take into account.

Question 21

Coping with Pollution in Beijing
Beijing, China's capital city, has been plagued with serious air pollution. Of particular concern is a pollutant called fine particulate matter (PM), composed of a mix of solid and liquid particles, including sulfate, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, carbon, mineral dust, and water. When people inhale PM that is 2.5 micrometers or smaller (called PM 2.5), it interferes with gas exchange in the lungs and contributes to development of lung cancer and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The standard of the World Health Organization is that PM 2.5 should not average more than 25 micrograms per cubic meter over a 24-hour period. But in a recent winter, PM 2.5 was measured at 755-a level at which people can see, feel, and taste the grit in the air. Along with increasing the risk of disease and premature death, that kind of pollution causes daily problems such as itchy throat and chronic cough.
Pollution that bad raises HRM challenges for organizations that operate in Beijing. A fundamental problem is that talented people in other countries do not want to relocate to the area. At BMW, several candidates for midlevel management positions withdrew their applications because of concerns about their families living in unhealthy conditions. A doctor at Beijing Family Hospital said he had heard from many expatriates that they intend not to renew their employment contracts to work in Beijing.
Some actions employers have taken involve making workers safer and more comfortable. Employers have purchased air purifiers and face masks for employees and have brought in experts to teach employees and their families how to stay healthy. They also have increased hardship allowances for employees working in the area.
Employers also can point to community efforts to make living in Beijing healthier. For example, international schools that teach the children of expatriates have taken actions to protect students. Dulwich College Beijing installed a huge dome over an outside play area, so students can leave the building to play basketball and other games when the PM 2.5 index is 250 or more.
The problem in Beijing also has become an opportunity for employers located away from the worst pollution. One Chinese company launched a "Blue Sky Recruitment" campaign in Beijing to lure young information technology engineers to the south of the country, where the air is better. The company's ads, posted in elevators, asked, "Do you dare to pursue a life with blue sky and white clouds "
What would it take for you to accept an assignment in a location such as Beijing with extremely bad air pollution

Question 22

For an organization with operations in three different countries, what are some advantages and disadvantages of setting compensation according to the labor markets in the countries where the employees live and work What are some advantages and disadvantages of setting compensation according to the labor market in the company's headquarters Would the best arrangement be different for the company's top executives and its production workers Explain.

Question 23

Standard Chartered Bank Invests in Its Expatriates
With branches in 70 countries and nine-tenths of its income coming from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, London-based Standard Chartered Bank often uses expatriates. When it needs someone to start up a new line of business or fill an opening on a project, the bank evaluates the existing skills throughout the organization. It has a workforce of 86,000 people of more than 130 nationalities, so Standard Chartered often can fill a need through internal recruitment.
At this point, the bank's staff responsible for talent acquisition, international mobility (relocation), and training and development work together closely. If the best candidate will have to relocate to another country, the international mobility team goes to work on estimating costs, and the training and development team begins to identify needs.
For any international assignment, Standard Chartered plans for employee development and leadership skills, regardless of the employee's level in the organization. Throughout the assignment, the expatriate employee stays connected with the bank's international talent deployment and talent acquisition group at a single location. Standard Chartered evaluates and coaches expatriates not only in whether they are adjusting to the new culture but also in how well expatriate managers are developing local talent to fill future roles. HR staffers participate in discussions about how each assignment will contribute to possible career paths for the expatriate. These discussions are particularly important in the last months of an assignment, so that returning employees see they are valued and are more likely to stay with Standard Chartered.
In India, the focus on training and development has been valuable as a way for Standard Chartered to compete in a tough labor market. Growth in the Indian economy has made retention of talented employees more difficult. The chance to take on interesting and important international assignments has been attractive to India's educated workers. Ensuring that these employees are well supported and developed means they can succeed at meeting the challenges of those assignments and thus build a career with the bank.
How might thorough planning for the return home help Standard Chartered retain talent

Question 24

What abilities make a candidate more likely to succeed in an assignment as an expatriate Which of these abilities do you have How might a person acquire these abilities

Question 25

Cross-Cultural Management Mishaps
When Andrew Pickup left his home country of the United Kingdom to take a management position in Singapore, he did not expect to have to adjust his style of gathering performance information. As Pickup analyzed the situation, he was traveling to a former British colony, where people spoke English and had grown used to British ways of doing business. He assumed his direct style of getting and sharing information would work well. Instead, when he invited feedback, employees were startled and were quiet. In Singapore, people consider it polite to be subtle. Pickup learned to take his time and develop relationships, and eventually he was better able to get the information he needed.
Debbie Nicol, an Australian, has a job that involves training others. When she arrived in Dubai for a six-year assignment, she experienced an embarrassment in the middle of a training session. One of the attendees suddenly stood up and headed for the door, and she felt she had failed to hold his interest in the subject. She asked why he was leaving. He said he was going to pray. After that, Nicol learned to build prayer breaks into training schedules at the appropriate times of the day.
Pickup and Nicol quickly learned from their experiences. Managers and employees can succeed in cross-cultural situations if they are flexible. Like Nicol, they may change their practices to suit an important cultural norm. Or like Pickup, they may persevere in demonstrating their own practices when these are most beneficial. Either way, it is important to behave respectfully and with an effort at genuine understanding. Success also is more likely for a person who is aware of and honest about his or her own cultural norms and values.
How respectfully and effectively did Debbie Nicol handle her mistake in the training schedule

Question 26

In the past, a large share of expatriate managers from the United States have returned home before successfully completing their foreign assignments. Suggest some possible reasons for the high failure rate. What can HR departments do to increase the success of expatriates

Question 27

Online Communities to Support Expatriates' Spouses
A common reason cited for the failure of an international assignment is that the expatriate's spouse was dissatisfied. The role of an accompanying spouse is difficult. Often, this person is not legally allowed to work in the host country, so it is more difficult for him or her to find new friends and meaningful activities.
Employers can help the accompanying spouse make connections. An employer, especially one with a lot of expatriate employees, might set up its own spouses' network. In The Netherlands, Eindhoven University of Technology recruits one-third of its employees from other countries but found that many left after a short period because spouses were unhappy there. It began offering spouses a "Get in Touch" program of weekly meetings to exchange information and visit places of interest. Between meetings, the spouses can keep in contact by joining the group's Facebook community. After the three-month program ended, many of the participants didn't want to stop participating, so the university added a Stay in Touch program.
Another approach is to provide information about non-company-related social networks for expatriate spouses. Spouses may appreciate the chance to build their own circle of friends. One example is the Trailing Spouse Network, a LinkedIn group where people can share ideas, advice, and support. The Trailing Spouse Network also has a page on Facebook.
Increasingly often, the accompanying spouse is a husband. Some men have had an especially hard time making connections, because support services have been geared to women. These spouses might especially welcome information about social networks for men. In Belgium, for instance, a group of men set up a group called STUDS (for Spouses Trailing under Duress Successfully), which offers activities and keeps members connected online with a blog. Even after leaving Belgium, friends who met in STUDS can keep in touch by posting news and questions on the blog's website.
What pros and cons do you see in referring an accompanying spouse to an outside social network

Question 28

Supporting a Multinational Strategy
When organizations are making decisions about where and how to operate, HR professionals should help to ensure that decisions about hiring, training, rewarding, and so on are aligned with their organization's strategy. Here are some ideas for managing global human resources:
• Develop a "global mind-set." Learn about the global business environment, including the legal, economic, and cultural issues affecting the various locations where the organization operates or may decide to operate. Practice empathy and diplomacy, and think of differences as something interesting to explore.
• Build an HR department that reflects the organization's global diversity. Ensure that the people in HR represent the people in the organization.
• Build a network of relationships with co-workers in other locations. Use the resources available, such as the corporate intranet, company meetings, and if possible, travel to other facilities.
• Learn what the HR best practices are in other countries. Instead of assuming that HR practices used in headquarters will work as well in all locations, weigh the pros and cons of different approaches in each context.
• Be sure training and development programs address talent needs globally. Identify and develop high-potential employees in all the locations where the organization operates. Review training materials to find and correct cultural assumptions that may not apply to all trainees or situations.
• Use company databases to create, analyze, and make available information about employees' skills, including international experience and languages spoken, so the best individuals can be tapped as positions open up.
How might a global mind-set help an HR manager follow the other guidelines listed